Dr George Forgan-Smith Collins Street Medical Centre

Hey guys. It’s Dr. George here, The Healthy Bear, at Collins Street Medical Centre, and today I wanted to do a brief video on what to expect in a skin check. Here in Australia, if you grew up in Australia or if you’ve been out in the sun throughout your youth, the chances are that you are at a slightly to maybe even moderately higher risk of developing forms of skin cancer, and these can be quite subtle, and sometimes they can be in places in your body that you may not be able to see, say behind the ears, behind the knees, things like that.

For this reason in Australia, it is recommended to consider getting a skin check every year or so. So, what happens in a skin check? It’s actually very, very straightforward. Here at Collins Street, all of our doctors are able to do a skin check, and it starts with first, if you have spots that you’re worried about, sometimes it can be a good idea, write down a little list, or you can even get a pen and put a pen mark around the spot that you’re worried about. That way you absolutely will not forget it.

When you arrive, we’re going to talk to you about your history, whether or not you’ve had skin cancers in the past, if you’ve had anything removed, or if anyone in your family has had skin cancers removed. With that done, we can then examine your skin.

As part of the exam, you will need to disrobe down to your underwear, and that way we can have a look at all of your skin. I like to do a routine where I go from the top of the head all the way down. I start at the hands, work my way over, and I’m looking for any spots that are looking unusual or a little bit weird.

We also have particular instruments here. This is called a dermatoscope, and what it does, it enables us to look deep into the skin where we can look at the structure of any of those spots, and if there’s anything unusual or that’s even looking the littlest bit dodgy, what we can do is we could either do a bit of a biopsy. That can either be a little punch hole, or it can be a shave, of course done under local anaesthetic, or if it’s very concerning, we can remove these lesions as well. The doctors here at Collins Street are able to remove skin lesions as well.

However, if there’s things like melanomas or anything like that discovered, we are more than happy to refer to skin specialists but also treatment centres that specialise in things like melanoma. But the first thing is be aware that being in Australia, being under the sun, we’re at risk of skin cancer, so it’s absolutely worthwhile to get a checkup and make sure that everything is going well and that there are no particular issues with your skin.

If you would like to consider a skin check, please, you can book using the information below. Have a fantastic day.